Billed as a speech where Theresa May was fighting for her political life after weeks of leadership manoeuvres by senior figures in her cabinet, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the prime minister at the Conservative party conference.
The combination of a prank, a hacking cough and the words on the set collapsing behind her meant that few will remember the policy initiatives she announced on housing, organ donation and energy prices.
Here’s how the disaster unfolded, and how the internet reacted.
The P45 prank
Simon Brodkin, who had showered fake banknotes on to Sepp Blatter when he was Fifa president, interrupted May to present her with a P45, which he said Boris Johnson had told him to give her.
The note he handed her was subsequently found on the conference floor.
The prankster’s P45, found by May’s lectern pic.twitter.com/RNVcqY9jXj
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 4, 2017
And the images of her being handed her termination paper were easily and quickly Photoshopped into gags on Twitter.
Not sure why but I photoshopped the dude handing May a copy of Iron Maiden's Powerslave and it's good. pic.twitter.com/AI4BdKXRO8
— Philly Boo-yrne (@PhilipNByrne) October 4, 2017
The cough
It wasn’t long after the P45 stunt that May’s voice began to fail her and she started on an extended coughing fit, which inhibited the delivery of much of the speech.
At one point the chancellor, Philip Hammond, handed her a cough sweet, and May ad-libbed that you very rarely saw the chancellor give anything away for free.
Boris Johnson had to be told to stand up
To cover the fact that May was faltering in her delivery, the audience rose to give her a standing ovation. They didn’t all rise as one, however, and the home secretary, Amber Rudd, appeared to tell the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, that he needed to stand. He did as he was told.
The communist-loving bracelet
There was some question over May’s choice of jewellery for a speech in which she was keen to criticise the politics of Jeremy Corbyn – a bracelet depicting self-portraits by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Can I just point out that Theresa May is wearing a bracelet of Frida Kahlo, a member of the Communist party who LITERALLY DATED TROTSKY pic.twitter.com/CR13geaO7n
— HannahJane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) October 4, 2017
Maybe this was part of a bold new plan to try to attract the Corbynista youth vote.
When the ghost of Frida Kahlo comes back to strangle you to death for abusing her image and everything she ever stood for. #CPC17 pic.twitter.com/jycxNYM9uf
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 4, 2017
Then the backdrop began to collapse
As if a sign that her political world was collapsing around her, near the end of her speech, the letters began to fall off the backdrop behind her. First the F from “for”, then the final E from “everyone”.
We've also dropped an E now, which actually starts to explain some of the things that have happened in the last hour pic.twitter.com/6IU6hxhTpR
— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) October 4, 2017
— Tom Phillips (@flashboy) October 4, 2017
I had to draw that pic.twitter.com/jGjEaiMbXX
— Marnanel Thurman (@marnanel) October 4, 2017
Boris Johnson: I'm going to be responsible for the biggest disaster at Tory conference
— Ross McCafferty (@RossMcCaff) October 4, 2017
Set designer: Hold my b r
Still, as many on social media were keen to point out, with the word “country” part of the backdrop, May possibly got off lightly.
All in all, if you’d written it as an episode of political satire, you’d have probably dismissed it as too much.
If you scripted that, the editor would go “the sign falling off is a bit on the nose, isn’t it?”
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) October 4, 2017
Social media users compared the performance to disastrous TV shows and conference speeches of the past.
The last time I watched a car crash like that on TV pic.twitter.com/R5sg5ZddmP
— Oisin (@OisinDubai) October 4, 2017
"The quiet man is TURNING UP THE VOLUME." That speech now looks like a nuanced classic.
— Vix (@yearof39) October 4, 2017
People were puzzled by May’s repeated mentions of the ‘British dream’
At several points in the speech, the prime minister referred tothe “British dream” as if it was as well understood a concept as the idea of the American dream. On Twitter, that didn’t seem to be the case:
Dear The World,
— Dr Tim Nicholls (@guessonomics) October 4, 2017
Just to clarify: Theresa May's 'British dream' is a mystery to us. We don't say that. It's not a thing.
Love, Britain ❤️
Isn’t the British dream the one where we turn up naked and unprepared for an important exam? Or Brexit, as it’s otherwise known.
— Doug Robertson (@flumcake) October 4, 2017
Me at the start of the speech: WTF is the British dream
— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) October 4, 2017
Me at the end in tears of laughter: THIS, this is the British dream
The audience reaction at times was painful to watch
The last laugh
But May had the last laugh on social media. The Conservatives have been criticised for lacklustre social media marketing over the past couple of years, including some particularly poor sponsored Instagram posts during conference.
May’s team, though, displayed a sense of humour and hint of self-deprecation that the prime minister isn’t renowned for, acknowledging the morning’s events with a simply worded tweet:
*coughs* pic.twitter.com/1b6CoW5Mrz
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) October 4, 2017
